Some pro athletes can be insulated from what is happening outside the arena, especially in the midst of a condensed season like the 2025-26 NHL campaign, when teams are playing essentially every other night.

But members of the Minnesota Wild live and raise their families in the Twin Cities, and the on-going unrest related to a federal immigration crackdown in Minneapolis and St. Paul is impossible not to notice.

“It’s sad, you know,” defenseman and Minnesota native Brock Faber said after the team’s morning practice at TRIA Rink. “Being from Minnesota, you hate to see things like this. Definitely, definitely sad for a lot of people.”

Following the killing of Alex Pretti by federal agents Saturday two miles from Target Center, the Minnesota Timberwolves postponed their home game by 24 hours. In St. Paul, meanwhile, the Wild played their Saturday night home game, the scheduled conclusion of the annual Hockey Day Minnesota celebration.

On Sunday, Wild ownership signed on to a letter from Minnesota business leaders urging a de-escalation of the tensions, which have been running high since federal authorities sent a surge of agents into Minnesota. As a result, several large-scale protests have been staged throughout Minnesota, the largest yet a march Friday in downtown Minneapolis.

“It’s been pretty devastating,” Wild forward Marcus Foligno said. “Having all girls, all my girls born here, Minnesota’s home. So, to see what’s going on in the Twin Cities, it’s tough to see. Right now, we’re just thinking about everyone involved and just trying to give our support as a team and this, through this organization.”

With Wild home games on Tuesday versus Chicago and Thursday versus Calgary, Foligno said he hopes sports can provide a an enjoyable distraction from the often-disturbing scenes playing out elsewhere in the Twin Cities. So far, three Minneapolis residents have been shot by Border Patrol or Immigration and Customs Enforcement, two of them killed — Pretti on Saturday, Renee Macklin Good on Jan. 7.

“It’s the entertainment business. We’re trying to bring people together through everything and all different types of situations,” Foligno said. “Sports are looked at that way. So, yeah, with us playing, and that’s when we step on the ice, that’s something that we’re trying to do is have these people get away from what they’re going through.”

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The Zac Brown Band will headline Minneapolis’ Target Center on Oct. 23.

Tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday through Axs. Fans can register for a presale at zacbrownband.com. The Brothers Osborne will open.

Atlanta native Zac Brown founded the Zac Brown Band in 2002 and built a following through heavy touring, playing country and rock clubs as well as jam band festivals. They signed to Atlantic Records in 2008 and found success with the single “Chicken Fried.” That led to a string of smash hits, including the chart toppers “Toes,” “Free,” “Keep Me in Mind,” “Homegrown,” “Loving You Easy,” “Beautiful Drug” and “Same Boat.”

The group has played the metro numerous times, including a pair of sold-out Target Center shows, two headlining gigs at Target Field and a 2022 stop at the Minnesota State Fair Grandstand. They also opened stadium shows for Kenny Chesney in 2013 at Target Field and in 2024 at U.S. Bank Stadium.

In December, the Zac Brown Band released their eighth album, “Love and Fear,” and launched it with a four-show residency at the Las Vegas Sphere.

“I can’t wait to get this back on the road after an epic experience at Sphere,” Brown said in a news release. “The (upcoming tour) is all about big energy — our new album, entertaining covers, the hits you know and love, a few unexpected curveballs and a whole lot of fun.”

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By AMY TAXIN, Associated Press

SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) — A former Canadian Olympic snowboarder turned top FBI fugitive is expected to appear in federal court Monday on charges he allegedly ran a billion-dollar multinational drug trafficking ring and orchestrating multiple killings.

Ryan Wedding, 44, turned himself in at the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City last week and was flown to Southern California after a yearlong effort by authorities in the United States, Mexico, Canada, Colombia and the Dominican Republic to arrest him.

Wedding is scheduled to make an initial appearance in federal court in Santa Ana, California. No attorney was listed for him on the court docket Monday morning.

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U.S. authorities believe the former Olympian, who competed in a single event for his home country in the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, had been hiding in Mexico for more than a decade. He was added to the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list last March when authorities offered a $15 million reward for information leading to his arrest and conviction.

Authorities say Wedding moved as much as 60 tons of cocaine between Colombia, Mexico, Canada and Southern California and believe he was working under the protection of the Sinaloa Cartel, one of Mexico’s most powerful drug rings.

He was indicted in 2024 on federal charges of running a criminal enterprise, murder, conspiring to distribute cocaine and other crimes.

The murder charges accuse Wedding of directing the 2023 killings of two members of a Canadian family in retaliation for a stolen drug shipment, and for ordering a killing over a drug debt in 2024. Last year, Wedding was indicted on new charges of orchestrating the killing of a witness in Colombia to help him avoid extradition to the U.S.

Wedding was previously convicted in the U.S. of conspiracy to distribute cocaine and sentenced to prison in 2010. Online records show he was released from Bureau of Prisons custody in 2011.

In Canada, Wedding faces separate drug charges dating back to 2015.

The 2024 indictment says Wedding ran a billion-dollar drug trafficking group that was the largest supplier of cocaine to Canada. The group obtained cocaine from Colombia and worked with Mexican cartels to move drugs by boat and plane to Mexico and then into the U.S. using semitrucks, the indictment said. It said the group stored cocaine in Southern California before sending it to Canada and other U.S. states.

An anti-ICE protest outside a Minneapolis hotel turned violent Sunday night, with some smashing windows and throwing bottles as federal officers fought to keep them from storming inside.

Heavily armed federal agents eventually arrived at Home2Suites Hotel, which protesters targeted believing that Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other federal law enforcement officers were staying there — a tactic that’s played out at other metro-area hotels in recent weeks as part of so-called “noise demonstrations.”

The protesters descended upon the hotel at 2808 University Ave. S.E. near the University of Minnesota a day after Border Patrol agents shot and killed Alex Pretti, 37, in Minneapolis.

Photos and video taken by several journalists captured the chaos. Dozens of protesters kicked and banged on garbage cans that had been put in the middle of University Avenue along with a mattress and other large items that blocked traffic. Others banged on pots and pans and drums, blew whistles and honked car horns. One man shot fireworks into the air, hitting windows of the six-story hotel.

A group of protesters eventually made their way to the vestibule, where a Minneapolis police officer and other men in street clothes struggled to shut the doors. One agitator who tried to push his way inside later spat toward one of the men.

A man, center left, next to a Minneapolis police officer grabs a protester in the doorway during a noise demonstration protest in response to federal immigration enforcement operations in the city Sunday, Jan. 25, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)

Other protesters hurled snow, bottles and other items into the hotel. One man pulled a small hotel sign off the building and raised it above his head, while another banged a pot on it to make more noise.

“You’re protecting murderers,” a protester yelled.

By 10 p.m., tear gas and flash bangs had been deployed and the protesters dispersed. It was unclear Monday if any arrests were made or if federal agents had been staying at the hotel.

Footage by independent photojournalist Becca Brannon showed several suspected ICE vehicles had broken windows, while one had “F–K ICE” and “MURDER” spray-painted on it.

Just before 11 p.m., the Minnesota Department of Public Safety said in a statement on X that State Patrol deputies and Department of Natural Resources officers were called to the hotel to help Minneapolis police with “damage to hotel property.”

“While they collaboratively worked to encircle the group for arrests because the demonstration was not peaceful, federal agents arrived without communication and deployed chemical irritants, clearing the group. The State Patrol and DNR are no longer on scene,” the statement read.

On Monday, the Department of Homeland Security said in a post on X that “anti-ICE anarchist agitators targeted a hotel where they believed DHS law enforcement was staying. This is part of a coordinated campaign of violence against law enforcement. These violent anarchists will not deter ICE from carrying out the American people’s mandate to arrest and deport the worst of the worst.”

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